Prior to arriving, prepare a credit card or a bank card. The reason for this is you cannot get a French bank card immediately. This might be easy for those students who already rented a house before arriving, but for some students, this might be a big barrier.

If you cannot solve your accommodation problem in a short period, a credit card or bank card from your home country is very important, on the one hand, taking too much cash with you is not very safe.

• The bank card must be Visa, Mastercard, or OB card.

In France, the POS machines in most of the supermarkets do not support Union pay and JCB, America Express, etc .; however, you can easily find an ATM which supports these bank cards. For example, for Union pay, there are 70% ATMs in France that can withdraw money directly. The money will be deducted from your bank account according to the current exchange rate. Most banks will charge handling fees, b ut there are still some banks that don’t, if you can find some banks who have “free policy” for withdrawing money overseas, it can help you save some money.

• The bank card needs to be a chip card.

Almost all bank devices in France are designed for a chip card, so your bank card must be a chip card. There are some devices that can support magnetic stripe cards, but not common.

• You better connect your bank account with your phone number.

Since you will live in France for a long time, you will need to deal with your bank issue on your phone. You need to use your phone to receive verification codes, etc. You better connect your phone number and bank account and make sure the international roaming function is working.

A credit card is recommended

 The credit card from your home country is not necessary, but using a credit card in France can help you to save money and build your personal credit, and it can also be required in some places.

• • Usually, the bank will give some favorable treatment to credit card users. For example, you can get a preferential exchange rate and integration which can be used to get some gifts, even a flight ticket.
  • Using a credit card can also help you to build your personal credit in your home country, compared with those people who don’t use a credit card, the credit card user with good credit can easily get a loan from the bank.
  • If you want to rent a car in France, your credit card will be required.

Please be aware that your credit card must support euro or US dollar, otherwise, the transition fee will be charged.

Do you need to prepare a lot of cash?

Preparing some cash before coming to France is necessary. Of course, you can find some exchange agencies here, but the exchange fee will be quite high. If you can change some money in your home country, that will be better. But be aware that in a lot of countries, the customs have some limitations about the cash that you can carry. 

How much money do you need to change? This depends on you, but you don’t need to bring too much, bringing a lot of cash with you is not a wise choice.

How to transfer your money to France?

As we mentioned, the easiest way will be to withdraw money from your bank card, but besides this way, you can also choose other ways.

There are many banks and platforms that provide international money transfer services, but first, you need a French bank account to receive money.

Note: These are just suggestions and experiences, and might be different in your country. Please consult the bank in your home town in order to get more information.